We had some good information about this place. Supposedly the anchorage was pretty good and it was a laid back small quaint town. We learned that “Cuttyhunk Island is the outermost of the Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. A small outpost for the harvesting of sassafras was occupied for a few weeks in 1602, arguably making it the first English settlement in New England. Cuttyhunk is located between Buzzards Bayto the north and Vineyard Sound to the south. The island has a land area of 580 acres and a population of 52 persons as of the 2000 census. This is a place to do a whole lot of nothing. It has a small beach, a great harbor, good fishing, a few dozen houses, some great ice cream, and some beautiful hiking trails. Cuttyhunk does not have discos, bars, malls, a singles scene, a party life, video games, parking lots, traffic, or much action. What Cuttyhunk does have is a quiet, isolated, beautiful, ocean environment”. It is also a dry island, but we knew that ahead of time and came prepared. The trip was about thirty five miles across Rhode Island Sound and in to Buzzards Bay. We again had to time the current so we left around 8:30am and arrived about 1:30pm. We really needed water so I had called the harbor master and had received permission to come to a dock to fill the tanks, then we were going to a mooring ball. The mooring are $45 per night, but we figured we would get one today, get water and scope out the small anchorage area they have. The harbor is small and moorings take up a lot of the room, leaving room for only about eight good sized boats to anchor. After another chilly ride (it has been in the seventies lately- good for sleeping though) we entered the harbor and I verified about the water. He told me to pull in any open slip and fill up. We did a slow pass and turned around and I chose an empty slip next to a very nice yacht. The wind was blowing pretty good so I didn’t want to go too far down the fairway. I figured the wind was blowing us away from them and I was kind of right. We pulled in next to him and was getting pinned along the pilings, but it wasn’t easy peasy. The captain of the yacht was out and ready to fend off or give a hand if needed, but we got ourselves straightened out and went about filling the water tanks. Once completed we backed out of the slip without much issue (with his assistance-except he tossed our long line in the water which made me yell at Lauren to “get the line up before it gets in the prop!”) and headed to the mooring field. We found an empty ball and got secured. Since we don’t have to wait and make sure the anchor is holding we took Frank to shore pretty quickly so we could walk around and explore. There is a pier with long wood building with small store fronts, each selling clams, lobster, chowder, and various other food items. We walked around and scoped out our options and settled on some chowder and a dozen oysters to start. Yummmmmy. They actually grow their own oysters here in the Cuttyhunk Pond. We walked up the road a bit and then veered off to follow a trail which led past a small schoolhouse which “the single school on the island had one teacher and three students as of August 2009; in June 2019, its final student, eighth grader Gwen Lynch, graduated as the sole member of the class of 2019”.
We continued on up the road and past the end which led to a trail- this led to the highest point on the island, which is Lookout Hill. “Standing at 154 feet above sea level. The Lookout is home to one of the six (one now buried) defensive bunkers built by the United States Coast Guard in 1941 to watch the surrounding ocean for Nazi U-boats. Stripped of their observation equipment and weaponry at the end of World War II, the bunkers are now picnic areas. They offer views of the island and its surrounding waters.“ Indeed the views were amazing. We walked a roundabout way back down to the harbor and returned to the boat. We were hanging loose on the back deck when we noticed the Raw Bar Boat cruising around the mooring field. They have a small boat with some guys that come around and shuck oysters and clams to order. They will also bring you chowder or any items you want from their menu at the pier. We ordered another dozen oysters and some clams- this was my first time having raw clams on the half shell and they were quite delectable. The evening was peaceful and knew we were going to be happy staying here several days.
Days 2: In the morning as we were having our coffee we were watching the anchorage area to see if any of the boats were leaving. One or two did and we talked about moving over there. I was being lazy and ending my coffee when I saw a sailboat come in to the harbor and anchor where someone had just vacated. Uh oh. We’d better get moving or we’ll lose a spot. We fired up the engine, left the mooring and headed to the back of the mooring field. They keep a square area dredged for a ten foot depth, but as soon as you leave that area it starts to get shallow quick. We inched our way back and found a spot that was far enough away yet deep enough. We dropped anchor, made sure it was set and went back to relaxing. This is where the fun started to begin. As the day moved along more and more boats were coming in and either anchoring or taking mooring balls. The small harbor was filling up. We went to shore and had lunch from a stand on the pier, walked around the island a bit and then returned to the boat to get our swim gear. We went and hung out on a beach which we had to ourselves for a while. Frank was enjoying the land time and we had our raft and was alternating from sandy beach to floating in the refreshing water. By the time we returned to Klondike more boats had filled the harbor. I noticed the tide had dropped and we could clearly see the bottom of the pond just behind our stern. Yikes! With the wind direction we were being blown to the edge of the dredged area, but we were still floating so it was all good. The winds were expected to stay a bit steady on the high side but we had pretty good protection in the harbor.
Day 3: We were hanging out on the boat and more and more boats kept showing up. This was our entertainment each day. Lauren and I were amazed at the amount of people coming in. Many of them were coming to the anchorage either before or after searching for an available mooring ball. There are some private balls, so you have to ‘find’ an empty city ball if there is one available. By the end of the day the harbor master was telling people to take any open ball. The harbor master comes around each night to collect payments and he keeps track of every mooring ball. It was early afternoon and we watched a smallish boat come and drop anchor in between us and a sailboat (who we had met the owners of on the beach yesterday as they brought their dogs to the beach and Frank was in heaven). I had stopped paying attention to them when Lauren said “are they dragging?” I looked over and it sure looked like they were moving.. “Is anyone on the boat?” Lauren asked me. I had seen them anchor then hop in their kayak and paddle off. “I’m not sure” I said, as I was now watching the boat clearly drag in what seemed like slow motion toward our neighbors. “I don’t think so” I was saying as I was getting up and quickly heading to our dinghy-it clicked in my head I had watched them leave. Lauren started calling to our neighbors trying to get their attention as I was pulling away in the dinghy. As I was heading to the boat I saw a small sailing skiff pull up and a guy hopped off and on to the boat. I pulled up and he asked if this was my boat? I said “nope, but it’s sure dragging quick!” He and I had a quick discussion and made a quick plan. We tied my dinghy to the side so I could maneuver us both, then he ducked inside. He came back out and said he was able to start the engine. At this point I was trying to drive us forward and stop the boat from hitting anyone. We had a quick conversation about what to do now and obviously we needed to get the anchor up. I then jumped on to the boat and took over the throttle while he went to the bow and pulled up the anchor. We then motored over to an empty mooring ball and we secured the line. Whew! That was close. Been there done that, so I know how it could happen. Just as we were departing the owners of the boat paddled up and thanked us profusely. All is well that ends well. I returned to the boat and promptly went back to kicking back, still getting entertained by the boats showing up. The anchorage that is good for maybe eight boats now had a dozen or more, all crowding around each other.
We had plans for later to meet our other neighbors who had anchored next to us on the other side for cocktails on their boat. We had chatted with Ron and Marcy and they were interested in our trip. They were an awesome couple who we truly enjoyed hanging out and chatting with. Just before we were to head over to their boat I noticed a guy rowing towards us. He pulled up and gave me a bottle of wine as a thank you for saving his boat from hitting anyone! That was unexpected and awesome. We went and had the cocktails with our neighbors and enjoyed the evening with a sunset view back up at Lookout Hill. With the lack of restaurants on the island, people have gotten creative. We ordered a pizza to take up to the lookout from a “restaurant “ which was basically tables set up in a driveway of someone’s house. I believe they made the food in the basement or maybe the garage and it was delicious.
Day 4: We had to have lobster. We had been scoping out the pier options and finally decided to pull the trigger. We had to pre order them and pick them up at 6pm. Lauren should know be than to send me in, but I was sent in to order. I ordered three large lobsters for us. I kind of got shocked by the price as I had misread the price, but it was worth it. We chilled during the day and visited yet another beautiful beach on the island. On the way back we noticed a looper flag on a newly arrived boat. This was unusual seeing as how we were off the loop route and hadn’t seen anyone in a while. It was nice to chat with them for a bit and Frank was very interested in their cat who had come out to say hello. We picked up our lobsters and returned to the boat to enjoy them. Today being the Fourth of July, fireworks were started at dusk. They kept going and it was a pretty good show, then the fog start to roll in and it was thick. The fog put an end to the fireworks as you could no longer see them it was that thick. Frank was not disappointed in this. We retired for the evening and had our plan for our next destination: Martha’s Vineyard.
